A Solution to Cargo Ship Backups at Ports
The Problem: In the US, in 2021, the cost of cargo ship backlog was $3.5 trillion. In February 2022 there were 260 ships waiting outside Chinese ports. Recently there have been 3 million containers stranded around the world.
Proposed Solution to the Problem of Cargo Ships Waiting off Ports to be Unloaded
The solution involves cargo ship decks that roll off the ships onto railroad tracks and away from docks to areas where cranes unload the containers. The empty decks can then be reloaded with containers and rolled onto ships to be taken across the ocean to another port. The following pictures show this process.
The above renderings show a logistics system designed to alleviate the backlog of cargo ships waiting to be loaded and unloaded at ports. This requires ships constructed with decks to carry cargo that can be rolled on and off. The ships would be navigated into locks to adjust the water level to allow the decks to be rolled off onto tracks and pulled by locomotives onto shore, away from the docks, where cranes would unload the containers. The empty decks would be then rolled to other areas where they would be reloaded with containers to be pushed onto cargo ships and taken to an overseas port with or without the same system for unloading and loading.
Requirements for this system include ship construction with a roll on/roll off deck and a port with the water lock, train tracks and locomotives to pull the decks loaded with containers. The above ‘Depiction of Wheeled Cargo Decks Running on Parallel Train Tracks Being Unloaded and Loaded’ shows four cargo decks (two being unloaded and two being loaded) and only one ship. Multiple cargo decks are another requirement for this system.